5 ms·

lol this is around 1% of the projects going on at any given time in the Media Lab.

aabhay 7y ago
It says something that one of the most well known and highly-praised media lab projects is basically a sham. What does that say about the other 99% of projects that aren’t even worth mentioning?
- simlevesque 7y ago
  It does not say much. 1%. "1% of gays are pedophiles, what does it say about gays?" Is what you are saying.
- _jal 7y ago
  I don't know about the other projects. To me, it says that the funding model has eaten the reason for the Lab existing. Feeding the hype machine that generates donations is considered more important than the work (not to mention the truth-seeking function of academia) the donations are supposed to fund. There needs to be some serious house-cleaning if they want to be considered an actual research lab of any repute. Ito was a problem, but he quite clearly was not the only one.
  - dmix 7y ago
    Academic donation seeking is a much easier thing to disconnect from real world ROI than most businesses can get raising capital. And 99.9% of businesses are not the 5 unicorns you read about in the media.
    - _jal 7y ago
      I think to a certain extent that's actually fine. An academy should not be run as a corporation; I think that notion is part of what is causing problems. What academia should not be divorced from is knowledge and truth seeking. I don't mean that in some wooly, idealistic sense: if that isn't the focus, you're hucksters and frauds, not academics.
  - rglovejoy 7y ago
    MIT grad here. This is just one more reason I have stopped giving money to the Institute.
- detaro 7y ago
  Possibly that they aren't as overhyped and thus look less impressive.
  - Laforet 7y ago
    They have been a major proponent of various overhyped blockchain projects. I don't claim to know everything they do but my image of MIT have already been tarnished long before the Epstein connection came to light.
    - biswaroop 7y ago
      I would like to point out that the Media lab isn't all of MIT. We do some really incredible research (LIGO, Black hole imaging, poverty research, to just name a few recent achievements). Incidentally, the media lab has a reputation within MIT as a place for often impractical ideas that never pass the demo stage. That said, the way in which a number of members of the MIT community (including outside the media lab) were associated with Epstein is troubling to say the least. [ETA: a large number of media lab projects are still really good, as the other commenter mentioned]
      - Laforet 7y ago
        Absolutely. My apologies if the comment above came across as disparaging to the whole institution. I come from academia myself and the MIT name still carries unparalleled prestige with it. But this only makes it more heartbreaking to see the brand diluted by a small yet highly visible section ran by a former nightclub owner.
    - gbear605 7y ago
      Some Media Lab projects are quite real, like Scratch.
- TTPrograms 7y ago
  I don't think this was one of the most well-known or highly-praised projects before this scandal. Certainly I can think of at least 10-20 other projects from the same time that were more well-known to me.
  - s17n 7y ago
    But can you name a single one that wasn't TED talk friendly nonsense?
    - TTPrograms 7y ago
      Ez: https://news.mit.edu/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213 https://news.mit.edu/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213 Or most of the rest of the stuff from that group: http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/research/ http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/research/
- dm3730 7y ago
  > What does that say about the other 99% of projects that aren’t even worth mentioning? At least one other major project, the OLPC from media lab and the infamous Negroponte gang was a total failure. Negroponte was back in the news recently due to the whole Joi Ito-Jeffrey Epstein pedo funding debacle.
bbanyc 7y ago
And most of the other 99% are vaporware and media hype, just like this one. Source: I was there for the worst two years of my life.
will_pseudonym 7y ago
And of the recent revelations? [0] "Why MIT Media Lab thought it was doing right by secretly accepting Jeffrey Epstein’s money" [0] https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/11/20860717/mit-media-lab-joi-ito-epstein https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/11/20860717/mit-me...

It says something that one of the most well known and highly-praised media lab projects is basically a sham. What does that say about the other 99% of projects that aren’t even worth mentioning?

simlevesque 7y ago
It does not say much. 1%. "1% of gays are pedophiles, what does it say about gays?" Is what you are saying.
_jal 7y ago
I don't know about the other projects. To me, it says that the funding model has eaten the reason for the Lab existing. Feeding the hype machine that generates donations is considered more important than the work (not to mention the truth-seeking function of academia) the donations are supposed to fund. There needs to be some serious house-cleaning if they want to be considered an actual research lab of any repute. Ito was a problem, but he quite clearly was not the only one.
- dmix 7y ago
  Academic donation seeking is a much easier thing to disconnect from real world ROI than most businesses can get raising capital. And 99.9% of businesses are not the 5 unicorns you read about in the media.
  - _jal 7y ago
    I think to a certain extent that's actually fine. An academy should not be run as a corporation; I think that notion is part of what is causing problems. What academia should not be divorced from is knowledge and truth seeking. I don't mean that in some wooly, idealistic sense: if that isn't the focus, you're hucksters and frauds, not academics.
- rglovejoy 7y ago
  MIT grad here. This is just one more reason I have stopped giving money to the Institute.
detaro 7y ago
Possibly that they aren't as overhyped and thus look less impressive.
- Laforet 7y ago
  They have been a major proponent of various overhyped blockchain projects. I don't claim to know everything they do but my image of MIT have already been tarnished long before the Epstein connection came to light.
  - biswaroop 7y ago
    I would like to point out that the Media lab isn't all of MIT. We do some really incredible research (LIGO, Black hole imaging, poverty research, to just name a few recent achievements). Incidentally, the media lab has a reputation within MIT as a place for often impractical ideas that never pass the demo stage. That said, the way in which a number of members of the MIT community (including outside the media lab) were associated with Epstein is troubling to say the least. [ETA: a large number of media lab projects are still really good, as the other commenter mentioned]
    - Laforet 7y ago
      Absolutely. My apologies if the comment above came across as disparaging to the whole institution. I come from academia myself and the MIT name still carries unparalleled prestige with it. But this only makes it more heartbreaking to see the brand diluted by a small yet highly visible section ran by a former nightclub owner.
  - gbear605 7y ago
    Some Media Lab projects are quite real, like Scratch.
TTPrograms 7y ago
I don't think this was one of the most well-known or highly-praised projects before this scandal. Certainly I can think of at least 10-20 other projects from the same time that were more well-known to me.
- s17n 7y ago
  But can you name a single one that wasn't TED talk friendly nonsense?
  - TTPrograms 7y ago
    Ez: https://news.mit.edu/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213 https://news.mit.edu/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213 Or most of the rest of the stuff from that group: http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/research/ http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/research/
dm3730 7y ago
> What does that say about the other 99% of projects that aren’t even worth mentioning? At least one other major project, the OLPC from media lab and the infamous Negroponte gang was a total failure. Negroponte was back in the news recently due to the whole Joi Ito-Jeffrey Epstein pedo funding debacle.

bbanyc 7y ago

And most of the other 99% are vaporware and media hype, just like this one. Source: I was there for the worst two years of my life.

will_pseudonym 7y ago

And of the recent revelations? [0] "Why MIT Media Lab thought it was doing right by secretly accepting Jeffrey Epstein’s money" [0] https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/11/20860717/mit-media-lab-joi-ito-epstein https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/11/20860717/mit-me...